Pea Shoot Crostini With Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette, Nasturtium Petals, and Fresh Ricotta

 

Now that my garden is in full production I'm starting to enjoy one of my favorite treats: Pea Shoots!  I've been itching to nibble on these little guys because they are in a super-tender state at the moment.

 

I decided to whip up this delicious snack by toasting some sourdough bread, making some easy five minute ricotta, and finally making a delicious meyer lemon vinaigrette.....this actually makes it sound harder than it is---all I really did was squeeze some meyer lemon juice into a bowl with olive oil, sugar, and salt and gave it a quick whisk.  

To finish it all off I tossed the fresh pea shoots in the vinaigrette, spread the toasted bread with the ricotta and topped it off with the pea shoots.  Small Nasturtium petals act as garnish but also gives these little Crostini a delicate peppery bite.  Hurray for Spring!

Making Tartine's Basic Country Loaf

I've been a huge fan of San Francisco's Tartine bakery. Whenever I make it up to the bay area I make it a point to plan my trip around the bakery. A couple of years ago I bought the Tartine cookbook and it's been one of my favorites ever since.

This last Christmas I was lucky enough to receive the new Tartine Bread cookbook and this loaf was my first attempt at Chad's recipe.  This recipe is complicated, so if you've never made bread with a natural levain, this book is probably not for you.  The trick to this bread is learning how to do the "turns" and having patience with your sourdough starter (watching this video really helped to see how the folds and shaping happen).

I ended up killing my first starter and later realized I was under-feeding my second.  I quickly figured out the right flour/water ratio and I was good to go.

Although I was extremely happy with the appearance and flavor of the bread, the texture was not exactly what I wanted, so I'm making a new loaf as we speak. 

One thing that making this bread lead me to was the fantastic bread forum and community over at The Fresh Loaf.  The people over there are so friendly and I learned an ENORMOUS amount just from reading the posts on the various forums.  A true resource!

Fried Bread Pudding or, The Best French Toast In The World

Does something like this really need words?  It's full of butter and cream and it's fried, I mean come on?!

Two things to keep in mind here: the bread pudding should be refrigerated before frying in butter and make sure that you slice it thick.  Fry in butter until crusty and golden and serve with some maple syrup!

I use the Tartine bread pudding recipe which can be found here.

To see some in progress photos of me making the brioche bread pudding click here.

Making Brioche Bread Pudding

I was recently gifted a delicious home made Brioche loaf that was screaming to be made into bread pudding, so that's exactly what I did.  I always use the Tartine Bakery recipe which calls for slicing and stacking the brioche bread and then adding the creamy goodness.

I think I'll take some of this bread pudding and fry it in some butter tomorrow for breakfast.   Very decadent!

Do you have a favorite bread pudding recipe?  I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

Sunny Morning Strawberry Jam Flavored With Mexican Vanilla

Strawberry jam on toast is one of those treats best eaten on a sunny morning. Don't ask me why, it just is.

After reading this article in the LA Times, I immediately started experimenting with different jams. Although strawberries are no longer in season, I luckily made a batch when they were in season and now I've been enjoying this delectable jam flavored with Mexican vanilla on sunny Fall mornings.

This jam has replaced my very favorite lemon curd on toast as my morning treat...for the time being that is.

I followed the LA Times recipe for Perfumed Nectarine Jam only replacing the fruit with strawberries and vanilla.  It's a versatile recipe so add or subtract whatever you'd like!

LA Times Jam Recipe

French Toast Medallions with Blueberry Compote

Best French Toast Recipe

I love french toast. Like, really, really love it. But sometimes the whole sliced bread and egg custard thing can get a bit boring.

Recently I've been buying Mexican baguettes called "Bolillos" which are basically demi French baguettes, only Mexican, and figured I'd try making french toast with them. Rather than cutting the bread in long slices, I sliced them into thick medallions. I figured the thick slices would produce a crispy top and bottom and silky soft custard center. To change it up even more, I made a simple blueberry compote to top it all off!

French toast medallions in second part of post..

Ingredients

8 large eggs
4 cups milk
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons dark rum
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 small french baguettes

Directions

Slice baguettes into 2 inch slices. Day-old bread works best...the drier the better. Mix remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Add bread medallions to egg custard and let soak for 10 minutes. Make sure to flip the medallions half way through the soaking time. Once soaked, carefully fry medallions in a bit of butter. I use a really hot cast iron skillet with 1 tablespoon of butter. Brown on both sides and serve immediately.

Blueberry Compote

2 cups frozen blueberries
2 tablespoons sugar, although the amount depends on the sweetness of the berries you use, or to taste
1 tablespoon triple sec

Directions

Place all ingredients in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat for five minutes.

How To Make Sourdough Starter...The Nancy Silverton Way

By Danny


For those of you who don't know Nancy Silverton---google her name, get a hold of one of her cookbooks, and learn! She used to run La Brea Bakery here in Los Angeles, and is now one of the chefs at one of L.A's most celebrated restaurants, Mozza.

She is a bread genius, and I recently found this neat little video of some cool lady making a sourdough starter the Nancy Silverton way! You see, my dough baby Tiffany totally died and I need to make a new one. Even my TRICKS TO REVIVE SOURDOUGH STARTER didn't work. Thank god for Nancy! Check it out the video!

Best Trader Joes Products

By Danny

Favorite Trader Joes Product

If you're lucky enough to have a Trader Joe's near you than this series of posts is for you! Trader Joe's is fantastic because they have great quality products at very cheap prices. The problem however, is that there are so many to choose from that I easily get overwhelmed (like I do with cookbooks, which is why I compiled the Ultimate Cookbook List!). So I got to thinking that other people might also be wondering which products are great, and which are so so, which is where this series of posts come in!

Best Trader Joes Products after the jump...

In the next coming weeks I'll be posting some of my favorite products, like the Brioche loaf pictured above! This brioche loaf is fantastic. It is fluffy and full of flavor, and perfect for french toast or bread pudding!

Do you have any favorite TJ's products? If so leave me a comment and let me know!

Best Banana Bread Recipe

By Danny

Delicious Banana Bread

This is the best banana bread recipe I've found on the internets. The key to this recipe is that the flour must be sifted PRIOR to measuring, and the bananas MUST be really, really, really brown and syrupy. If you're looking for a banana bread with a twist, try this recipe for classic banana bread with walnut coffee crumble!

Best Banana Bread Recipe in second part of post...

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cup of flour

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve. I sometimes add 1/2 a cup of chocolate chips! yum!

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3 Ways To Revive A Sourdough Starter

I'm a bad dad. I totally let my dough baby Tiffany, die. I know, I know. Bad Dad! The good news however is that there are three things you can do to revive a dead starter.

Reviving Sourdough Starter

1. Feed The Sourdough Starter Every 24 hrs

Add the same amount of bread flour as there is dough starter with a tiny bit of water. Mix until the flour and the starter come together to form a stiff dough that holds together. Let it rest at room temperature inside of a covered jar that has been lightly sprayed with olive oil. Allow it to rest 24 hours, then repeat the first step only this time throw half of the starter out, otherwise you will have WAY too much starter. Do this until the dough doubles within 6 hours of resting. The baby is alive again!

2. Add Organic Rye Flour

If the first step doesn't work after a week, try adding organic rye flour instead of bread flour. Only do this once, then continue using bread flour as instructed in the first step. Rye flour has wild yeast in it (well, technically all flour does, but rye flour has WAY more!) and this sometimes helps revive the yeast in the starter.

3. Place Sourdough Starter In Warm Place

Try step #1 & #2 but instead of letting it sit at room temperature, turn the oven on and place the jar on TOP of the oven. Leave the jar there for a few hours, but not longer than six. Yeast tends to activate faster in warm temperatures, so the heat from the oven gives the starter a jump-start.

If these three steps don't work then I'm afraid your dough baby is totally dead. Sorry. Let the resuscitation begin!

All tips and instructions taken from Rose Levy Beranbaum's fantastic book,The Bread Bible